Hatori's Duty
by Meshou
Summary: Hatori + Tohru. Harori gives Tohru a checkup, she faints, and things go from bad to worse.
1. Mail Call

This takes place in the anime timeline, after the anniversary of Tohru's mom's death, but before they go to the lake. Anyway: no real romance going on, but sort of romantic/awkward moments. Allot of characters show up, so I'll say who they are here, in order of 'screen-time': Hatori, Kyo, Tohru, Shigure, Yuki, Ayame, Momiji and Akito. This doesn't mean I'm favoring Kyo above Yuki, and Tohru is almost always there, but not always conscious. Akito's time is short but intense, as always. I'll just let you read.   
  
Disclaimer: I did not come up with, nor do I own any of these characters. This story, however, does belong to me.   
  
____________________   
  
"Mail call!" yelled Shigure as he walked into the dining room. It was warm, and the doors were open to let the fresh air in.   
  
"We've got mail?" said Yuki, who looked up from a student council itinerary. It was May and already their class was a little behind in money, so minor budget cuts-   
  
"Of course you don't got mail! Who's gonna write you? You don't tell anyone your address!" Kyo had been napping with his head under a news paper. It fell off his head when he sat up. Kyo woke up and fell asleep so easily it could make it hard to tell if he was napping.   
  
"Shut up, baka-neko. I didn't mean it was from-" Yuki thought for a moment , and frowned, "It isn't from the main house is it? I really can't-"   
  
"O, boys! Who said it was for you?" Shigure smiled.   
  
"If it isn't for us then why did you bother to tell us the mail was here!" Kyo jumped to his feet, hitting his leg on the table, and knocking over his glass of milk "Gaaaaaah! Dammit I-"   
  
Toru rushed in from hanging laundry and said, "What's wrong Kyo-kun?" She looked at the turned over cup.   
  
Tiny water droplets on the side of the cold glass ran together onto the table, mixing with the milk. Kyo hadn't been asleep for long before he started fighting with Yuki again. But he was asleep in the same room, so maybe they were doing better.   
  
"Oh, did you bump your knee getting up? Let me see!" Toru kneeled on a cushion next to where Kyo normally sat, and Shigure got a towel to save the varnish of the wood on the table staining.   
  
"There's need to worry about him, Honda-san. He's too macho to let anyone near him when he's hurt, even if it is just a little scratch," said Yuki, smiling warmly up at her.   
  
"Shut up, prettyboy!" Kyo sat back on the ground sullenly, but allowed her to roll up his pant leg for inspection. He was sitting with his right leg upright and bent to be examined, and the other discreetly folded under it, half indian style. His left hand rested in his lap, the other behind him on the ground for balance.   
  
"Oh, it's not your knee, it's your shin! And right on the bone!" Kyo had a thin bruise a few inches below his knee from hitting the edge of the table, and it broke the skin near the middle.   
  
"Has anyone seen the bandages? I think they keep getting put back someplace I wouldn't normally put them, because I couldn't find them half an hour ago."   
  
"Aww, you don't need to-"   
  
"I know where it they are!" Shigure said and dashed off.   
  
"Oh, Honda-san, where you hurt?" said Yuki.   
  
"Oh," Kyo suddenly realized what she had said.   
  
"No! Well, not really," she pulled back from her study and brushed her hair away to reveal a swollen scratch on her neck, "A twig snagged me, and I wanted to just put a little disinfectant on it. That's all."   
  
"It looks bad. It's all.... red and stuff." said Kyo. His fingers almost lost contact with the floor when he leaned in to get a closer look.   
  
"Really? It hurts a little, but I'll be fine. Thanks."   
  
"That could be infected. It's already very puffy. You should have that looked at." said Yuki.   
  
"Yes, you should, Toru-kun! Here's the bandages! Can I play doctor too, now?"   
  
"Shut up you idiot," said Yuki and Kyo in unison.   
  
"Thank you, Shigu-" Shigure dumped the box full of cotton swabs, a bottle of peroxide and the bandages all at once into her outstretched hands, just as she turned to face him. The supplies fell to the floor.   
  
"Shigure!" said Yuki.   
  
"You damned idiot!" Kyo yelled at him.   
  
"Oops, silly me! I should think next time, ne?"   
  
"What's this?" Toru held a thick envelope addressed to her she found on the ground. There was a return address on it, but not a name.   
  
"Oh, that came for you today, Toru-kun."   
  
"That-" started Kyo "-envelope............." finished Yuki.   
  
"Is something wrong? I hope It's okeh if I get mail isn't it?" Toru's eyes went wide,   
  
"I haven't given out my address to anyone but Hana-chan and Uo-chan, I swear! Except for Grampa- oh, and my aunt would know! Then of course my cousins- I've really messed up haven-"   
  
"Relax Tohru-kun! That's the main house address see? The family even has special paper made for us, so you can tell it's from there, even if there's no return address. If there's no postage, there's a problem, so if you ever find one, please tell me. Anyway, everyone at the house knows where you are, so no worries!"   
  
Yuki looked run over and Kyo gritted his teeth.   
  
"Shigure, what the hell you trying to-" Kyo tried to get up, but tripped over his left leg and into Tohru. When the smoke cleared, Tohru had Kyo's shirt on her head.   
  
Apparently Kyo had kept going and had knocked over Shigure. Somewhere between eight and one hundred twenty pounds of orange fury had hit Shigure in the gut, and he was being yelled at by the cat on his chest.   
  
"Damn you Shigure, I'm sick of all your double talk crap, like you're so much smarter than everybody else cause you get some sick joke that no one else does! Well I don't like where you're taking this, you bastard! Did you plan this? What the hell are you pulling-"   
  
"I couldn't know you'd need a bandage! Besides, it might be important-" whined Shigure when he got some breath back, and placed a hand behind him to try and prop himself up a little. Kyo started shredding Shigure's Yukata.   
  
"Stay put while I'm talking and shut the hell up!"   
  
"Don't do that, Kyo, this is my favorite one! It's an heirloom, you can't find the indigo thread to get it mended anymore! You don't even know who the letter's from!"   
  
"When it comes from that house, it comes form one person." said Yuki quietly, still sitting at his seat. Shigure and Kyo stopped and looked at Yuki, and everyone took a few breathes in tense silence.   
  
"It's from Hatori-san!" said Tohru, who had reached the signature. The guys snapped out of it and looked at her.   
  
She had been reading the whole time, and had folded Kyo's clothes next to her. Shigure sat up and Kyo leapt onto the table to try and look at the letter.   
  
"What's it say?" Kyo said suspiciously.   
  
"He says...... well, it's in a tense I'm not used to. And it's got a lot of Kanji I don't know for sure. Something about seeing him, but with over a page written here, I'm afraid that doesn't reflect well on my reading. I think you'd have better luck than me, Yuki-kun."   
  
Yuki reluctantly took the letter and read a few lines, "I'm afraid this is......... very formal. It's like reading some treaty form the eighth century. From what I know, some of these are metaphors for actions and places, but I don't know about what."   
  
Shigure held out a hand and flexed his fingers, grinning.   
  
"What makes you think you can read it if wonder boy can't?" said Kyo.   
  
"Because, I taught Hatori how to write like that. Very hard to understand if you don't know how, ne? Aya can read and write it too, but since it's already a long winded way of writing, reading his can be very time consuming."   
  
"Oh, I see!" said Toru, who clapped her hands together in delight, "It's a secret code! I tried to make one up once, but I'm not that great with words anyway. Mom told me I should just try being honest, because then the people you need to understand will, and the people who don't wouldn't understand what you had to say in the first place, which is better than a secret code! Or something like that. It kind of makes sense, but if I think about it too hard it sounds weird. But it had that feeling you get when you hear a big truth, you know? Like a bell's been struck, and your soul rings back, you know? So I'll just keep trying to figure it out!"   
  
The others looked at her, dumbfounded. Where inside of her did she pull these things from........?   
  
"You have good a point, Toru-kun!" said Shigure and then laughed.   
  
Yuki glared and handed it over. Shigure elaborately reached into his clothes and took out his glasses, flipping them open to read with.   
  
"Ah," said Shigure after a minute, "Hatori got permission from your grandfather to have your medical records transferred to him. He's asking to set up an appointment sometime this week. Tomorrow fine? " he looked up and sparkled at her.   
  
"What!?" yelled Yuki and Kyo.   
  
"Oh, no, I can't do that! It's Friday, and of course I have school! And I don't have anything I can pay-"   
  
Kyo stood up in a puff of smoke, and Toru stifled a surprised scream. Kyo grabbed his clothes and marched off into the hall not bothering to go to his own room. He reappeared a few seconds later with his shirt on inside out, fists clenched   
  
"Hey, I wasn't the one who thinks she needs a doctor's appointment!" said Shigure skooching towards the wall.   
  
"No? Well, who told Hatori where her Grandfather lived?" said Yuki.   
  
"And knowing you, you're just in it to get sick little details!"   
  
Shigure peaked at Toru from behind the wall of approaching orange and gray destruction and said, "Toru-kun, when was your last doctor's appointment?" Yuki and Kyo stopped their advance and looked back at her.   
  
Toru thought, "Well, with the expense and with me working, and with how little Mom made...... over two years."   
  
"Do you get sick allot?"   
  
"I....... do more than I used to. I just need to be less flaky about taking care of myself. It's usually my fault when I get sick."   
  
"I see. Have you gotten all your shots up to date and such? Prevention is the key to good health!"   
  
"I- I....... oh dear.......! No wonder I'm so.........." she blushed and stared off into space, "I guess I could get some payment plan or something....... after school I can go see him," she trailed off and mumbled, "Well it's sunset already, and I haven't fixed dinner...... silly me," she smiled a little walked into the kitchen.   
  
Yuki and Kyo stared off at some point in space. "Fine," said Kyo, "it's better than dying, I guess."   
  
"If anything happens, Shigure......." said Yuki softly through his teeth, "I'll haunt you. Even if I have to follow your spirit to the lowest Hell to do it." The boys turned and started walking away.   
  
"Can't we just trust-"   
  
Cries of "NO!" came from behind the hall and the garden doorways, which had been slammed so hard they broke.   
  
"I'll just confirm the appointment, shall I?" said Shigure.   
  
As Shigure was getting up, Kyo marched back into the room from the yard, coming through the hole in the door. He bent over and grabbed the bandages and peroxide from off the floor. Shigure made one of his faces at him.   
  
"What? I'm supposed to tell her to keep healthy if I can't even keep a scrape from getting infected?"   
  
Shigure's smile began to border on a leer.   
  
"Go to hell," muttered Kyo and he walked back outside toward the ladder. 


	2. The Back Way

Ayame shows up. One thing: bathrooms and toilets are seperate in japan, and addresses are useless for finding houses. Toru would be given directions or drawn a map to Soma House. ____________   
  
Toru looked at her directions again, and turned the corner. It was late aftenoon after school, and Toru was following the directions Shigure gave her to Soma House. The house was big enough to see the walls from the street she was on but there was only one gate. She would have to make her way towards it. She didn't go over one street to look along the wall, because she hadn't gone this way before, and she wasn't sure she could find her way back if she got lost. Everything looked so similar.....   
  
Shigure's directions were different than the ones Ha'ri gave her late last year, and a great deal more complicated. The final parts of the directions had a doodle next to the part where it her to turn. She did.   
  
The gate wasn't there. Just a small garden along the wall, with roses and a sort of climbing ivy on a trellis. She looked at the directions again to see if it was right. She read the two pages again and when she got to the end, she looked closer at the doodle. It was of a stick figure in a sailor fuku, like she wore to school climbing up a crosshatched wall. The fit of the fuku was alarmingly accurate, and the drawing had little hearts and stars drawn around it.   
  
Toru almost panicked. She was supposed to sneak in? Like a thief?? She paced up and down the short length of the garden.   
  
"Oooooo, hello Toru-kun!" there was no mistaking that voice.   
  
"A-Ayame-san!" said Toru, and turned in his direction.   
  
"Ha ha ha! No need to worry! I won't need a ride today, as lovely as it is a carriage! It is warm as you could want for the spring!" He was wearing his usual silk blouse and nice pants, but without the chinese overcoat.   
  
"Yes, it's very hot, really. I would have gotten a drink from a vending machine, if I knew it was so long a walk! I haven't seen you wear this sort of thing outside before! N-no, wait, that was rude, I shouldn't have commented on-"   
  
"O, worry not sweet Toru-kun! I'm perfectly happy you have seen me in such intimate circumstances. After all we've been though together, there is hardly room for embarrassment."   
  
"Ne? I'm not sure what you mean," Toru said.   
  
Ayame laughed and rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed, "To be perfectly honest, neither am I. I forget myself sometimes. I'm lucky you can keep me grounded, it would be a shame to go overboard and ruin our friendship. In any case, these are my grubbies! I would like to wear something more formal, but I cannot outshine the roses in dirty clothes, no matter how fine the cut of cloth!"   
  
"Oh, you can garden!"  
  
"Wellll, yes. But only roses. The rest sort of turn brown."   
  
"But roses are really hard! I've read about gardening to help out Yuki with his secret base!"   
  
"Secret base? Like a fort? Ah the wonders of boyhood! Roses in one would calm the roughness of such a place!"   
  
"N-no. It's just a garden for....... onions and things. Vegetables. Yuki planted strawberries too, just after I started helping!"   
  
"You like those, do you?" Ayame looked thoughtful.   
  
"Yes, I really do!"   
  
"Well........ you need to get over the wall, right? Ha-san wouldn't want you to be late for your date!"   
  
"Date? No! It's just a-"   
  
"Worry not, little Toru-kun! That's why the three of us put the trellis and garden here! You will not be the first young lady to climb this wall into his waiting embrace! " "Really? Y-you don't say......."   
  
"No. Not really, I'm just fibbing! But it's fun to think about, ne? Up you go! Alas, I'm afraid I can only catch you if you fall, but not hoist you myself! Such a shame for a young lady to exert herself when a man is around! At least in this particular situation......"   
  
"W-w-well thank you!" said Toru who started to climb the viney trellis. Her skirt was too short to keep decent while climbing, but she was already late, so she didn't worry.   
  
"Bye bye!" Ayame called after Toru, looking up at her while she climbed.   
  
----   
  
Toru was on top of the wall, and wondering how to get down. She was looking into Ha'ri's rock garden, but it was a 10 foot drop. Rocks weren't known for being soft, and sand wasn't much better.   
  
"Use the tree in the corner," Toru started and looked down at the door to Hatori's room. He was in standing next to his desk, writing something down. He looked up at her. "The smooth branches are solid enough for someone...... my size, so you should be fine."   
  
"Uh, sure." Toru said. She walked over the tiled roof to the pine tree in the corner of the yard, next to the house. It was tall enough tower over Toru, even standing on the wall.   
  
There were, as Hatori said, certain branches that had been worn smooth and without bark from being climbed on. On the way down, she could even see where fingers had worn grooves in the wood. She walked along the edge of the garden, trying not to mess up the raked sand.   
  
"I'm so sorry I was late! I didn't know that I was coming this way, or how long it took. I had a little trouble with the instructions."   
  
"Really? Let me see," She took off her shoes and handed the directions to Ha'ri. He frowned, and instead grabbed her hand, setting the directions aside, "Why are your hands red? Do they hurt?"   
  
"Oh, they itch some. I think the tree was a little rough."   
  
"Mmm. Wash your hands, please. The wash room is right there."   
  
"Okeh."   
  
She walked into the bathroom, through a door from Hatori's room. It was modern for such an old house, with a shower and tub. The tub had water in it already. There was a switch on the wall to heat the bath, instead of a wood stove like at Shigure's house. The heater would be expensive. She washed her hands, and went back into Hatori's room. Hatori was sitting and reading the directions. He looked up at her.   
  
"Nh. Shigure didn't even need to send you the back way. Akito always gets sick mid-spring, and I gave him rather more medicine than was usually recommended, just to be safe. With his health, I mean. If he weren't asleep I would have delayed the appointment."   
  
Ha'ri looked back down at the directions. He read under his breath and moved his finger in the air, like tracing the route on an invisible map, "And this route seems to double back at least..... three times. And he didn't say explicitly enough how to get in," Hatori shook his head, got up and slid open the door to a closet, "He didn't need to send you off on a twisted route and use codes, like you were some secret agent trying not to be caught."   
  
"Huh? Then....... why did you write that letter so only Shigure could read it?"   
  
"The boys would not approve of me being your doctor. I thought if he read it first, it would be harder for them to argue. But there was no need to further confuse the situation, or make it hard to know how to get in."  
  
"That's okeh! Ayame was in the garden so it turned out fine!"   
  
He glanced behind him, his left eye peaking out behind his hair. His hair was getting longer. Ha'ri hadn't cut it in the time Toru had known him. "Don't pay any mind to what Ayame said. Discretion is not his strong point. Especially if there is no need to be discreet," He found a large thin case and a roll of paper in the closet. He carried them to the center of the room.   
  
"Y-you heard him?"   
  
"No. I just know him." He opened the case , which unfolded , into a long padded surface. He went back into the closet and took out a thick wooden frame, which he also had to unfold, and a sheet. He put the sheet on the frame and the pad on that. He tore off some paper and folded it between the frame and the top to prevent it from slipping.   
  
"Oh that's smart! You have more room if you can put the table away." She thought for a second, "Do you....... normally do checkups, uh.......... here?"   
  
"Yes. For Junishi members I do checkups in my quarters, but others must go in the office. I am fully equipped here, I assure you. Do you need anything before we start?"   
  
"Well, I'm a little thirsty. But it can wait!"   
  
"All right. Down to underclothes please. There's a screen in the corner."   
  
"Uh...... I think you should know I'll need to arrange a payment plan before-"   
  
"No need to discuss that now. We'll arrange something afterward."   
  
"Okeh," she walked over behind the screen and started to take her shirt off over her head.   
  
"No need to be nervous, my bedside manner is not the best, but I am professional."   
  
"Oh, I'm not nervous!" she called.   
  
"I do need to tell you........ I am bound by my oath as a doctor, but also by other obligations. I am asking you not to give me any more information than you need to. If possible just say yes or no. That would be the safest."   
  
"Wstfugl?" Toru said stopping at the button at the side of her skirt. 


	3. Missing Fathers, Bandaged Wounds

Hatori finds something worrying. I took a brief reference from the Anime and expanded it a little. As far as I know, all the medicine I describe is accurate. --------------   
  
"You allright?"   
  
"Oh I'm fine just-" Tohru stopped herself from babbling and gasped for air, "Yes Doctor Soma!"   
  
"No need for formalities, Tohru-kun. I am not angry."   
  
"Okeh........."   
  
She walked over to the table slowly and got onto it. Ha'ri had walked over to the desk and had gotten out a little black case. She was wearing a loose undershirt over a bra, and plain underpants. They were all white, and though they fit, they seemed young for her age. Tohru nervously crossed her arms around her ribs. Hatori came back with his stethoscope and glasses on. He walked up and breathed on the listening end before putting it on her chest to listen to her heart.   
  
"Breathe normally," he said and Tohru did. Hatori blinked, his face flickering for a brief second. Tohru thought of a pebble being thrown into a deep pond, sending out little waves that faded before they reached the shore. She wondered why. He went behind her and listened to her lungs.   
  
"Breathe deeply, all the way in and out," He listened to the other side.   
  
"Do you feel okeh?"   
  
"Yes, I feel fine. Is something wrong?"   
  
"Well, your lungs sound a little off. Your heart sounded funny for a moment, a little muffled. It was your breathing is what's making the noise, not your heart, however. Do you run as fast as everyone or have trouble breathing? Do you get colds allot?"   
  
"No, I do well running, but I do get colds a couple times a year."   
  
"Anyone else in your family have lung trouble?"   
  
"Yes........ my Dad."   
  
"How often is he ill?"   
  
"He died. When I was little."   
  
"Oh. Please excuse me. I did not know. I........." he reached back a little into himself, to try and explain his callousness, "My father..... was in a position in the family that gave me equal standing with everyone else, in relation to him. So he was alive at your age, but I was never cared for by him. It does not seem as unusual to me as it should, that a father would not do that for a child. I spoke from that."   
  
"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess that not having a dad at all, dead or alive, can be hard. Mom said Dad would be there with me if he could. But his the memory is always with me. Mom's gone and Grampa's so old........ so it's my job to keep it alive. It's a sad thing for me, but not because it hurts, but because there's so little I have that he left behind. I don't remember much, but what I do is wonderful. Carrying that with me is a comfort, even if it's heartbreaking to know I can't ever have anything quite like it again. Maybe that could help with you too."   
  
"I......... suppose it is not a good thing for a child. However, his memory is not with me, though I too must keep it......... " he corrected himself, "I run into it often."   
  
Tohru didn't know what to say to that, "O-oh? I....... well, ummm.... Dad died from lung trouble. He got pneumonia after a long cold. It never really made sense to me, how something so little could kill someone. But nothing that happens really is little, is it? Not when right now is all you really have, ne? That's why I always try my hardest, and never regret what I have now! If I try to go back and say 'I should have done this' then I know I wouldn't have the joy I have now, right at my fingertips."   
  
Tohru smiled a little, but then she remembered what he had said and gasped, "Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell you all that! Too much information, right? Please forgive me!"   
  
"No, it was fine. It was.... relevant to know how that he died form that. I was not strictly supposed to say you what I said either. Your lungs are a little weak. I'm going to continue, but I'll most likely give you antibiotics, and come to Shigure's to check you out in a week."   
  
Tohru tried not to think of the money, and nodded.   
  
He looked in her right ear, and when he gently brushed her hair out of the way to look in her left, he saw the scratch.   
  
"Did you get that coming down from the tree?" he said running a finger down the swollen abrasion. She gasped a little, so he stopped.   
  
Hatori bent his legs until he was level with her neck, and started examining the sides with both hands. He felt around it with the tips of his fingers, moving them in a sort of firm tickling motion. He was gentle and it didn't hurt. It was strangely intimate. Hatori took his glasses off and moved his face was in close so he could see. Tohru could feel his breath on the side of her neck, and she felt a shiver go down to the base of her spine. If Hatori noticed, he didn't show it.   
  
"N-n-o, it happened yesterday."   
  
"Yesterday?"   
  
"Yes, b-before dinner. I brushed against a twig."   
  
He stood up again, "What kind?"   
  
"Of tree? I don't really know. Why......?"   
  
"If this happened yesterday, it should have clotted better. It's seeping and very swollen. I think, since it happened such a long while ago, it may have even gotten deeper because of this...... large amount of swelling."   
  
It was over a centimeter thick, and it was two inches long. It was bleeding a little, especially at the sides. The cut was so swollen it was tearing itself open, which would be more painful than she let on. It was definitely worrying, but his face stayed straight as always. He got out some cotton swabs, peroxide, tweezers and bandages, and some sort of gel she didn't recognize.   
  
"What's that?" she said as he started with the peroxide.   
  
"It's a topical antihistamine, which I think will help a great deal." "Oh......... what does it do?"   
  
He looked up at her, looking surprised for a moment, then blank. _Pond again_, Tohru thought, but ignored it. She thought the oddest things, sometimes.   
  
"It's a medicine people take for allergic reactions, like for pollen or mild bee stings. This goes only on the skin, which is just as well. They do not bother to keep topical medicine form being offensive to the taste or smell."   
  
He wasn't lying. He applied a very little of the stinky medicine to the length of the scratch, and then put on the bandage. Her face lit up.   
  
"Oh, that feels almost nice! I didn't know it would work so quickly."   
  
"It has a pain killer and something to make it feel cool as well. So if it isn't an allergic reaction going on, at least it won't be painful. Do you know what you're allergic to? Just in general?"   
  
"Oh, I'm not to anything, I don't think,"   
  
He took her file off his desk, and flipped through the papers, apparently not finding what he was looking for, "Hmmm....... after I finish this, and give you a couple of shots, I'd like to do some tests."   
  
"Tests?" said Tohru   
  
"Only one now after the basic checkup is done, and maybe more depending on what I find." Hatori replied.   
  
"Okeh. You're the doctor, right?"   
  
_More money_, she thought, _more work. I'll pay it off. I'll just not buy anything and give him as much as I can._ 


	4. Why Shigure Writes

Hatori tells a story about Shigure's childhood. It's made up form my impression of him, and isn't supposed to be his big back story. ----------   
  
Hatori looked in Tohru's ear and gave her immunizations without saying anything. She lay down and he lifted her shirt a little and tap on her stomach and lower back to check her liver and kidneys. He finally gave her her shots, then took the stethoscope off his neck.   
  
"Tohru, I'm not very trained in allergy medicine, but I know how to do the tests. I have to know a great deal more than most doctors, because on some cases I don't have the luxury of calling in specialists. I've got the supplies to do an allergy test, so I'll do a slightly modified one. More animals and plants, but not food or insect. Do you know how it's done?"   
  
"No."   
  
"You lie on your stomach and I put drops of things you might be allergic to on your bare back. Then I take a needle and scratch where the drops are lightly. You wait a few minutes and then whatever's swollen will tell me what you're allergic to."   
  
"Does it hurt?" said Tohru tensing a little.   
  
"The ones you're allergic to may hurt right away. The others probably barley tickle. You will have to take off the undershirt, but you need only unhook the bra. If you'd rather someone else do it, then that's fine, but I think it's best if you do get it done soon."   
  
"That's fine, you can do it. No time like the present, ne?" Tohru said.   
  
Hatori nodded and walked to the closet to get the supplies for the allergy test, while Tohru took off her overshirt and unhooked the back of her bra. She lay face down on the table.   
  
He took a marker and drew lines on her back, then started putting the drops on. She gasped at how cold they were.   
  
"I keep these in a little refrigerator," said Hatori mildly, "Would it be easier to keep still if I talk about something? Some people feel that way."   
  
"Yes, it might. I'd like to know more about you and your friends, if that's okeh."   
  
He paused, then continued to apply the drops. "Not much to Ayame, even he thinks that. He just likes to make everything into a soap opera. No matter how he feels about anything, he'd change it instantly to make a better story." Hatori walked to his desk and back, and started came back with the needle. He started scraping the skin under the cold drops.   
  
"Shigure is kind of strange man. Someone in the family every generation takes an interest in writing things down, and it looks like Shigure's it. No one would have thought so. He didn't talk much until he was five," Tohru was shaking, "Everything fine?"   
  
She let out a burst of giggles, " Yes. Sorry, but you were right, it tickles. I heard what you said. I can't imagine Shigure serious like that."   
  
"No need to apologize. Shigure was anything but serious," Hatori said, and started up again, "People say, and I remember, he would get into a lap to be spoken to, like they do for very young children. There were more women Juunishi, then. He would sit and nod his head like he understood he was to be a little more responsible now, and then he'd do something like stick his fingers up their noses and laugh. He wasn't disobedient, he simply hadn't the capacity to listen or remember. He only looked grave because he was thinking of what to do next. Shigure wasn't able to go to school the first year, it was so bad.   
  
"Finally, the one who wrote things down before him, she was the monkey at that time, sat him down early one morning and read to him. He usually didn't have the attention span for a fifteen minute story, but as soon as she got to the character for 'a,' she stopped, and started telling him a story bout why it looked like that. It was ridiculous and involved a kappa and a pair of scissors. When she was done she resumed reading, and when she got to the next character in order, she told an entirely different story, and while she did, she moved his finger over it, the way it was written. She did that and stopped at each character in order, even starting the book over twice to get to all of them. None of the stories were even remotely similar, and many were completely true, scientific, or historical. They were up till noon the next day, neither of them moving, and when she closed the book, they just lay on the floor right there and slept.   
  
"After that, he started sneaking around people's offices all week and he finally got sent to his room. When he didn't come out when it was time, someone checked on him. He had found a pen and had written on the doors, the walls, the sheets, everything. It was the exact word for word stories he had heard, along with the parts of the book inbetween. Everyone was too surprised to be angry. Normal children that young don't have the grammar or spelling skills that he apparently picked up just from that sitting. He was given the correct supplies, and told to write it down before they redecorated, but not to rush. He was done in two days, over three hundred pages.   
  
"The next school year he still wasn't talking much, but tested into our grade because of his written language skills. Saru-san died a year later, and he put the book in with her. Ayame and I protested, but he said he knew it by heart. The mother of the new monkey was only a little younger than Saru-san, and the new one she gave birth to was slightly disappointing, to say the least. And worse, looks like the old one."   
  
"What was her name?"   
  
"It's kind of a tradition just to refer to the dead Juunishi by their animal names, although some are lax about it. It's like we're only stepping stones for the next ones. Shigure would tell you."   
  
"Ritsu-chan looks like her? Ow!"   
  
"Ah, that might be one. So, you've met Ri-san?"   
  
"No, but I've met..... Ritsu-san's mother." Tohru hadn't heard Ritsu's sex for sure, and no one volunteered it, so she stayed cautious, "Shigure doesn't seem like he writes the sort of histories you hear about. Like the records from the old Imperial Court days."   
  
"No, he doesn't. He's the expert on them though. If there's a tricky bit of lore or a historical reference, he knows it or where to look it up. He knows more about the family history than Akito, which is amazing considering Akito's memory."   
  
Hatori finished and threw the needle in a special waste basket in the closet, along with the gloves he was wearing. He sat in a chair next to his desk to wait.   
  
"His memory?"   
  
"Akito's memory is....... very long. As for the court logs, could you recognize a quote from them?"   
  
"I'm not that educated yet, I'm afraid."   
  
"They aren't taught in schools. Do you know who the great love of Genji's life was?"   
  
"From The Tale of Genji? It was Murasaki, right? Same name as the Lady who wrote it. When she was young, she was an orphan girl....... he.......... adopted."   
  
Ha'ri lifted his hands, dismissing Tohru's notion of what he meant by this, "You know the story, then? Genji has many love affairs over his lifetime?"   
  
"Yes...... it's widely known."   
  
"Well, you've heard of that, but not the details of court records form then? Nor the names of who wrote them? Perhaps that's not the sort of thing people look at when they want to study historical life. A fictional story...... it tells about how people address one another, what kind of person is respected, what they wore, the standard of beauty..... More information than who was executed when or that someone was married for some contract."   
  
"R-really?"   
  
"Yes. The test should be done by now, Tohru-kun. I will have to touch your back, and it may hurt. Please tell me if I am too rough."   
  
"Okeh......" 


	5. Help Is Needed, Help Arrives

Things go wrong in several ways. The cavalry comes to rescue the day, but yells a bit first. ^_^ Here's where the rating I gave it starts to show. _____   
  
Hatori stood up and looked at her back, clipboard in hand, writing down notes. He prodded spots on her back, some of which hurt.   
  
"You are mildly allergic to grass, poplar, and mold, but nothing that would give you more than a mild headache on a bad day. You might itch if Kyou licked or scratched you as a cat, but nothing more. No other common animal allergies, except pigeon a little. But........ it looks like evergreen sap gives you some trouble. And juniper," he very lightly touched the sorest spot, and she gaped, "dramatically so."   
  
"Oh! A sheet blew off the line! I picked it up near a juniper, so I guess I got it form that."   
  
"Yes. That may be what's aggravating your lungs. I still think they're a little weak, but not as bad as I suspected. Another shot is in order, but otherwise I'm done. Go ahead and get dressed, and I'll prepare the shot."   
  
"I've been around Junipers before, and I've never had that trouble," she said.   
  
"Allergies are strange like that. You never react to the first exposure, but form then on, you may be sick from it. Sometimes, you can be exposed to it for years before the allergy shows up. They can even go away for almost no reason. Not even the experts know why."   
  
"Wow, that's kind of neat! No wonder you became a doctor!" Tohru put on her undershirt on the table. That wasn't so bad. Hatori had been almost animated at times. Well, for Hatori.   
  
"Yes, I'm fortunate it turned out so interesting. Tohru-kun, while I think of it, you are going to be eighteen in a little over a year, I see? There is a type of checkup that you no doubt were told about in health class that you will need at that time. I am obligated as a doctor to mention something about this to a girl your age. Even if some doctors in Japan don't out of embarrassment, I find that attitude unprofessional."   
  
"Uhhhh, yeah. I guess it would be." Tohru's ears turned red.   
  
"I have delivered children, but I'm not a specialist. I would refer you to someone outside the family."   
  
"Oh?" she started to turn pinker in the face as well.   
  
"There are a number of reasons someone would want to see one early. Some just want to. Others suffer from reoccurring infection, are not virgins, or have irregular menstrual cycles," Tohru was almost glowing red as he continued "All of these mean that you should see one, because all can lead to some trouble if you are not checked out. If you ask to be referred early, there would be no way for me to definitely know either way on any of these matters. Do you understand?" He had the shot ready, with the cap on the needle.   
  
"Yes, but...... it uh, isn't necessary, I'm.... on all of them it isn't needed."   
  
Hatori's jawline flexed, but he otherwise didn't react.   
  
"All right," he said more flatly than he had been speaking earlier. He had hoped she would've taken the hint, "You'd rather stand for shots, you said before?"   
  
"Y-yes" Tohru stood up and stumbled a little.   
  
"You'll have to be near a table to support yourself, I'm afraid this one can't be in your- are you okeh, Tohru-kun?"   
  
"Yes, I'm- I'm just.... too hot........" she began to fall forward. Hatori yelled sharply. His first instinct was to catch her, but he stopped himself before he did. She thudded dully onto the ground.   
  
He turned her on her back and straightened her legs out from under her. He then put his ear near her mouth and took her pulse. The pulse was steady, but weaker than it should have been. And too fast. He could hear her breath rattling as it left her mouth. He grabbed the case with the stethoscope and knocked it over, but he took it off the ground and just left the rest lying there. He listened to her chest, no different from earlier. Her mouth was very dry, then. He ran his hand across her forehead and rubbed his fingers together. Hot, but barely moist.   
  
"Damn," he said. Hatori ran to the phone.   
  
---- The phone rang a few times before Momiji picked up.   
  
"Momiji, is Kagura here?" Kagura used Momiji's phone when she needed to because she didn't talk to anyone regularly enough to have one.   
  
"No she's out today. You sound weird, Ha'ri, is there-"   
  
"Where's the nearest family-" he thought for a second and corrected himself, "the nearest Juunishi member?"   
  
"Ne? Well, Aya isn't back from gardening I think. What's wron-"   
  
"Ayame! Of course!" said Hatori and hung up.   
  
Hatori marched quickly to the wall, messing up the raked sand, "Ayame! Ayame come here!" he barked. There was no answer.   
  
"I know you're there, Ayame! Honda-san's in trouble and I need help! Now!"   
  
"Tohru-kun?" yelled Ayame from over the wall. Half a minute later, Ayame pulled himself onto the roof and scrambled down the tree. He was dirty and his hair a little out of place from climbing the wall.   
  
"She's in here. She's fainted. I should have checked her blood pressure, I would have caught it right then. Dammit."   
  
Ayame didn't ask questions, or comment on Tohru's state of undress. He did look shocked, for a second, at the medical instruments on the floor, but turned to the matter at hand.   
  
"What do I do?" Ayame kneeled by Tohru, watching Hatori. Hatori bent over her feet.   
  
"I need you to-"   
  
The door to Hatori's office was thrown open, and Kyou barged in followed by Momiji, both breathing hard. Momiji was in puffy shorts, a lacy powder blue blouse, and little cap that matched the shorts.   
  
"You shouldn't just come in-" whined Momiji.   
  
"What the hell is- is...." Kyou saw Tohru passed out on the floor in her underwear. Hatori was at her feet, and Ayame next to her, had a hand on her stomach. Kyou turned a deep red, but didn't transform. He turned and faced a wall. "What the hell is happening? Why's she in your room, with that perverted bastard Ayame here?! Of all the-"   
  
"She's sick." said Ayame.   
  
"She's dehydrated, and her breathing is bad, so she fainted. We need to get her cooled down." said Hatori.   
  
"Answer my question!"   
  
"He does my checkup here," said Momiji.   
  
"And mine," said Ayame.   
  
"I do non-Juunishi members at the office, Kyou."   
  
"Why's she here, then?"   
  
"I have no time to explain myself, she's sick."   
  
"Well, it sounds like just a cold to me!"   
  
"People with fevers complain of feeling cold, but she felt hot. She was out in the sun for a long time, and her breathing is from an allergic reaction to something scratching her neck." Kyou looked back at Hatori, remembering the scratch he saw, "I know she's dehydrated because she isn't sweating enough for how hot she is, and her blood pressure is a little low from lack of fluids. That means , along with her having trouble breathing, not enough air is getting to her brain, and she can't cool herself off. Momiji, Kyou, you're here now, so you're both going to help."   
  
"Right," said Momiji. Ayame, and Momiji kneeled at her legs, and Hatori stood next to her left arm.   
  
"Can we help her breathe?" Ayame asked.   
  
"I would give her oxygen, but I don't have a tank. Come here and help Kyou,"   
  
"I..... I can't just-"   
  
"If she gets dropped, or we transform, it will be a great deal harder. She might stroke out if we don't do this, and wet towels aren't a safe enough bet. Keep your mind clear, and you won't get so embarrassed you transform. Now Kyou,"   
  
Kyou scowled and went to her other arm. They all lifted and carried her towards the bathroom. Hatori wrapped his arm around hers when he lifted, dangerously close for a Juunishi, so he could have a hand free to support her head. Kyou started to readjust his so he could help hold it up too, but Hatori told him not to.   
  
"Ayame and Momiji are too weak to do this without one of us. One of us can risk it, but not both."   
  
They got into the bathroom and Kyou started to move to put her in the tub.   
  
"No, the shower."   
  
"The bath's already full of cold water!"   
  
"That was in case she tried to hug me. It's salty, and too narrow for one person." Kyou stopped, and so did everyone else, to prevent wrenching her limbs, "One person! There's gonna be-"   
  
"We will both be clothed, Kyou and someone has to hold an I.V. bag. I also have to monitor the water temperature, because too cold could make her shiver, which would make her hotter. Do you know any of this? So it can't be you, can it? Shut up and do what you're told."   
  
They all helped her in the shower, Kyou grinding his teeth, and Hatori turned on the water.   
  
"Ayame, get me an I. V. bag that says 'saline' on it and a needle marked 18 gauge form the drawer. It's in the medical closet and the drawer's labeled. Momiji, find the syringe I dropped, then put the instruments on the floor in my bag and bring them to me. The shot'll help allot, but this came first." Ayame and Momiji walked into the other room.   
  
Hatori stripped to an undershirt and his long trousers, setting his glasses on the sink, and sat in the shower next to her. Her clothes were already soaking wet, and neither of them looked at her out of modesty.   
  
"And what about me huh? The stupid cat not good enough to-"   
  
"Hush Kyou. You're chaperone."   
  
"You didn't need a chaperone when you were doing you're checkup. In your room!" "That was for discretion. You know I only treat family members, and it would be remarked on if I took in other cases. But if this becomes widely known some in the family might say she is now in no position to refuse anything improper. There are some things that people would whisper about, even If I was alone with her for thirty seconds like this."   
  
"What about before Ayame showed up?"   
  
"Can't be helped. Besides, which would make a better story? Me doing something before you got here, or molesting Honda-san after, when I sent people away with my authority as a doctor? No one would accuse me of rape, but perversion is a plausible charge. You can imagine them being horrified and saying 'It's only natural, a half naked girl and a healthy grown man. Especially a doctor, who sees so much in his work, but can't do anything. She may have even pretended to have been passed out, and enjoyed every little-'"   
  
"Shut up! I get it! Besides who _can_ accuse you of rape?"   
  
Hatori looked at Kyou, eyes half lidded, "Most don't know of the curse. As for the Juunishi, I will say no more than that you must be more creative in your approach, Kyou," Kyou choked, and flushed crimson.   
  
Hatori continued, "The real trick is not to ever kiss or embrace the girl, but it has been done without the secret being revealed. Intimacy is a large factor in transformation, so it is less difficult if you don't care about the woman as well. It is a largely empty experience, because of that, and one reason marriages are so rare. Can you say I care about Tohru?"   
  
"Y-you don't need to be graphic!"   
  
"You did listen, and I am a doctor. I know about these things. I wasn't in any way graphic, simply making sure you got my point. It will be very inconvenient if I ask you to do something in a situation like this again, and you end up killing someone because you are suspicious of me. I'm not a saint, but I wouldn't physically endanger or harm anyone, and I wouldn't directly give a brat like you an order unless I needed it to be done. I know better than to tell you to do anything and depend on you to obey unless I have no choice."   
  
Kyou's hair stood on end, "You're right, I don't take orders! Especially not from you, when I know who's the next rung up! You never helped anyone you weren't made to by Akito, or some Goddamed duty to the fami-"   
  
Ayame brought his hand hard across Kyou's face hard and then forced his own face in so close to Kyou's that their noses touched. Ayame's glowing eyes were narrowed. He had both his hands on Kyou's cheeks, nails dug in to prevent Kyou from drawing back.   
  
"Never question his duty. Nor his suffering. And never think he wouldn't do anything to help Tohru, because I would too. Anything for her. If you want to hit me back, I can't stop you. But later, boy, when I know I won't be needed."   
  
Ayame spoke slowly and didn't draw breath, so the last few sentences were hissed lowly. He let Kyou go, and Kyou rubbed his cheekbones where Ayame's nails had broken the skin.   
  
Momiji came in, with the case and the shot, "It rolled under the desk in the commotion. Sorry I was so long. Here's the case, too."   
  
"Just the syringe, for now," Hatori took off the cap and propped her so that he could reach her bottom "Has to be the gluteus. It's the biggest muscle close to the skin's surface, and this shot's useless in a smaller muscle like the arm." he said without being asked.   
  
He lifted up the leg hole as discreetly as possible and inserted the needle. He shut his eyes for a moment, like he was feeling for something, then pushed the plunger. He saw Kyou's expression when he opened his eyes again.   
  
"I did it only to help me visualize. It has to go between two layers of-"   
  
"That's not it! How can you be so cold about this? Can't you act a little embarrassed about it? Not as much as me, maybe, but a little?"   
  
"I'm her doctor. I have no intentions of courting her or sleeping with her. I act as if I am a different class of person when I act as a doctor." He sat her back up and took the I. V. bag and needle from Ayame, "Turn the nozzle away while I do this, I don't want to contaminate the needle."   
  
Momiji pointed the showerhead at the floor of the shower, and Hatori ripped open the sealed package. Hatori attached the needle to the tube, letting some fluid dribble out before turning off a tap at the top. He brought the crook of her arm in close to his eyes, and put a thumb on a blue vein in her arm. He inserted the needle right below where his thumb marked. He started the I. V. and held the bag above his head, squeezing it a little at first. He looked detached, like he didn't know who this girl was, or think it much mattered.   
  
"That's what I mean, like you don't care! And who said anything about- about courting her?"   
  
"Kyon-kichi, it isn't unheard of," said Ayame, still serious, but less worried, "It's very common, really. It may be old fashioned, but hardly anyone bats an eyelash when a woman graduates from highschool and marries someone ten years older, even a teacher. Ha'ri, Shigure, and even I would be the right age to provoke rumors. It'd have to happen when women not married who are our age get called 'old maids,' and young men who get married before 25 wouldn't be educated enough for a good job. Your generation may be a little different, a little more tolerant of unmarried girls and less of age difference, but we're a very old fashioned family, ne? It would make a lovely tale, but alas and alak, the casting's wrong."   
  
"He means Hatori's not like that," said Momiji.   
  
"_Hatori_ isn't?!" Kyou shouted.   
  
"What? I thought you knew that Tohru wasn't!"   
  
"I do!"   
  
"I also think Ha'ri just means he wouldn't be able to help Tohru if he ran around like the Meshou lady when stuff went wrong." Momiji said.   
  
Hatori nodded, "If I hadn't stopped myself from catching her, I wouldn't have been able to get Ayame. And........"   
  
"But you got me and the others came and all is now well! Let us be glad of it!" said Ayame he clapped his hands formally, with closed eyes. He said, "We give thanks for our good health!"   
  
Hatori, Momiji and, a split second after them, Kyou, also repeated the gesture. Hatori's hand was full, so he took his free hand and moved it as if the other was clapping as well, sweeping his hand around and stopping when it reached the middle of his chest.   
  
"Thanks," they chorused.   
  
They were silent for twenty minutes, and the saline ran out. Hatori felt her head and pulse and took out the needle.   
  
"She's cool again. Get out the spare mattress, someone, and bring a towel, one of my shirts and a clean pair of my shorts. I'd check if Kagura were here, but the fewer involved, the better. Tohru can't stay in wet clothes."   
  
"What about Yuki?" said Ayame, "I'm not close with him, but he would want to at least know. And 'Gure-san shouldn't worry."   
  
"Yuki was too chicken to go to Momiji's place with me to wait for her. I don't think he'd come."   
  
"Nevertheless, they should be called. But you shouldn't be the one to do it Ayame. You tend to react unfortunately when serious matters and Yuki are involved." said Hatori.   
  
"Oh..... yeah. You're right, as usual," Ayame said. Momiji and Aya left the room to do what they were told, and Kyou was again, chaperone. 


	6. Virtue, Shame and Lies

Oooh, so hard to write. I knew what was going to happen very clearly, but not nice things are happening. This isn't for the kiddies, but not very graphic. By far the roughest chapter. Hatori has to dress Tohru, and then visit Akito, who he can't lie to......... ------------   
  
Ayame returned a few minutes later with all the clothes Hatori asked for and an extra towel. Hatori turned off the water and dried his arms before having Kyou and Ayame carry her onto the bathroom floor. Hatori put the towel he used under her head like a pillow. He took her hair out from under her head, letting the length of it rest above her on the tile floor. He stretched her arms above her head and pealed off her undershirt.   
  
"Maybe we should go outside," said Kyou, grabbing Ayame's shoulder.   
  
"No. Stay. Watch as much as you can. I won't have her accused of anything because of me."   
  
Ayame nodded and stood at attention, watching what Hatori did with a deadly serious expression. Ayame grabbed Kyou's arm hard as Kyou tried to leave. He didn't know Ayame had that much strength in his grip.   
  
"Do you trust us two alone with her," Ayame said quietly, "or me with any friend of mine? Hatori and I share a great many things, Kyou. Do you think nothing will happen? Can you be sure?" Kyou stopped breathing.   
  
"That's enough, Ayame-san, I need to concentrate now." Hatori said Kyou stayed. Despite just wanting to look at her face and nothing else, he watched Hatori.   
  
Hatori sopped as much water as he could with the second towel while her bra was on. He unhooked it and took her arms out of the straps. Without taking it all the way off, he put one of his white work shirts on her. He bunched up the shirt's back, placed it under her and slipped the arms on, buttoning the cuffs. He then pulled the back straight. Ha'ri was a foot taller than Tohru, and the shirt reached down to her mid-thighs. He did most of the buttons up, starting at the bottom of the shirt, before taking the bra by the middle and lifting it off. He did the rest of the buttons up to the top.   
  
"Both watch this especially closely." Hatori kneeled between her knees and very clearly showed the position of his hands to them before reaching up the sides of her thighs. Without looking at her or closing his eyes he grabbed the top of her panties, and then, moving on his knees down the length of her legs, took them off and discarded them flat on the floor. He stood up and faced the other way, toward her feet, and took the pair of shorts Ayame handed him. He put her feet in them and pulled them up until the waist band hit her upper thighs. He stared at a point high up the wall he was facing.   
  
"Lift her up, I can't get them the rest of the way on with just two hands. The other one keep watching." Ayame lifted her hips and Hatori got them on. He showed one hand, and with the other felt to see if they were properly on, as well as for for fit.   
  
"They're too lose, they'd fall off when we carry her. I need a safety pin or something." Ayame reached into his pocket and produced a hair clip, "Would this serve?" Hatori nodded and lifted up the side of the shirt to clip the boxers tight. He stood up.   
  
"Ayame, did I at any time touch or look at Honda-san in a way that would cause her or me shame?"   
  
"No," said Ayame, "You didn't,"   
  
"Do you agree and repeat that statement, Kyou?"   
  
"Yeah, nothing sick happened."   
  
"You both need to tell that to Momiji when he comes in."   
  
"Why?" said Kyou.   
  
"Witnesses. In case we can't or won't say it later. For Tohru, not Ha-san." said Ayame.   
  
Kyou was struck by a thought, "Awwww shoot. We coulda put her in her uniform!" Hatori and Ayame shook their heads.   
  
"The shirt's short and doesn't button, so there'd be no way to do it discreetly."   
  
"And even if you could, there'd be nothing under that short skirt of hers. She was barely able to maintain her dignity climbing in the back way, and perhaps no one alive, save that virtuous child, could have-"   
  
"Don't push it, Ayame, I still need you." said Hatori, and Aya bit his tongue just before Kyou would have gone off.   
  
Momiji came in after a few minutes and he said when he first saw Tohru, "Toru-chan's wearing her shirt the way Ha'ri wears his. I don't know anyone else who buttons all the way up on his day off,"   
  
"No," said Ayame, "Or fastens both buttons on each cuff. He used to be more..... relaxed about it when he was off duty. He was never really good at wearing casual clothing, but that was in it's own way a good thing. The air seemed almost electric with his presence when he dressed down, because of how aware of his own body he is when he's uncomfortable. He had quite a few little admirers."   
  
Kyou couldn't imagine Hatori dressing down, let alone girls following him like they did Yuki.   
  
"Do you think the collar's too tight on her?" Hatori said, looking down at her. His voice seemed to come from far away, almost disoriented.   
  
Ayame looked at Hatori out of the corner of his eye, "Ha-san, she's got inches to spare, see? It's too tight on _you_. I keep trying to make you new ones, but you turn them down."   
  
"Mmmmm. They don't look professional if they're loose."   
  
Although he was confused about why Kyou and Aya were there at first, Momiji heard their oaths and soon understood the need for witnesses.   
  
"Yah. No one else could have done it either. What Ha'ri did, I mean. If more than one of us did stuff like dress her or be in the shower with her, it'd damage our credibility too, especially since we aren't doctors. Right, Ha'ri?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
They carried Tohru out to where Momiji had set up the bed, and put her in it. Hatori tucked her in.   
  
"She's just asleep at this point. She may wake up a little, but she'd be too exhausted to stay awake for long. If you see her wake up, say something quietly to keep her clam. Don't seem frightened or angry, and smile if you can. Momiji's best at that, so he should be the one to speak the most to her."   
  
Momiji remembered do something, "Oh! Yuki's coming!"   
  
"He is!?" said Kyou.   
  
"Yah, I told him the back way was clear right now. He barely remembered it, but knew Ayame hung out back. I didn't tell him Aya was here instead, though."   
  
"You'll have to go before he comes, Aya-san." said Hatori.   
  
"But shouldn't I at least swear to him nothing happened before I depart?"   
  
"Unfortunately your oath would detract from our claim in Yuki-kun's book." said Hatori.   
  
"Yeah, he'll have a hard time believing me as it is. I might get a tooth knocked out," said Kyou.   
  
"I'll swear nothing happened," said Momiji, "but I'll say it so he thinks I was there! Without lying, too! He'll believe me, even if I am...... little for my age." Momiji tugged at a lock of blond hair self-consciously.   
  
Ayame seemed satisfied with the plan but disappointed. He said goodbye and walked out into the hall, towards the front door. Hatori went behind the screen and got dressed.   
  
"I have to go out. Akito needs attention around now. When I come back, if I say something obviously strange, just follow my lead." He picked put the bag that held Akito's medicine and equipment (he used a different set of everything with Akito, because of how ill Akito could get if the instruments weren't specially cleaned each time).   
  
"Okeh, I get it Ha'ri! Come back soon! We promise to take gook care of Tohru-chan!" said Momiji. Kyou looked darkly at Hatori's departing back.   
  
---------   
  
Hatori walked into the dark room. The round window was the only source of light, and the room seemed to almost be in black and white. Akito was on his mattress, bare chested. He was covered below the waist, only by a blanket and whatever he chose to wear to bed the night before.   
  
"Don't stare at me like a pretty girl, Hatori. Be professional." Akito didn't say how he knew Hatori was there.   
  
"I apologize for staring like that, Akito. It was rude of me. You have simply lost weight again these past few days you've been ill."   
  
"You're right, it was rude. I've come to expect more reverence from you, Hatori. I've also always been ill, so it shouldn't be a shock. But yes, I suppose for a man of my height, every pound I lose under a hundred makes me look like a different invalid." Akito smiled a little.   
  
"Have you eaten recently?" said Hatori, stonefaced and kneeling by the bed. He took out the stethoscope.   
  
"It was a joke, Hatori. No, I've slept. A long time for me. I either missed or turned away my meals. I usually sleep for no more than two hours at a time, Hatori. Why would I sleep so long, I wonder?"   
  
"It is a side effect of the medicine I gave you. You don't like it?"   
  
"It isn't pleasant, no. Is there anything that happened while I slept that I should know about?"   
  
"Yes. I gave Honda-san a checkup."   
  
"I don't recall giving permission for that," Akito said softly.   
  
"I'm sorry. I would have woken you up if I knew I needed it. You were asleep when the appointment was made."   
  
"You always need my permission, Hatori. But no matter," Akito waved his hand dismissively, then coughed a little. When he caught his breath he said, "Was it eventful?"   
  
"Slightly. She fell ill from allergies and lack of water. Ayame, Momiji and Kyou assisted me with moving her when I needed it. I had to call for help, but she'll be fine."   
  
"Ayame and Momiji, eh? Where was Yuki during all this?"   
  
"I'm not sure, he wasn't here. I would have, of course, sent him to visit you if he were."   
  
"Of course you would have. I wouldn't expect anything different from you, Hatori."   
  
Hatori listened to Akito's lungs. "Breathe deeply," he said. Akito did, and coughed violently when he exhaled. His chest rattled wetly.   
  
"Does that happen every time you take a full breath? A coughing fit?"   
  
"No, every half breath. It's a slight strain to talk, at the moment."   
  
_Meaning most patients in this condition wouldn't make the effort because of the pain_, thought Hatori   
  
"I see," reached into his bag for a syringe and bottle, "It's not a bacterial infection, so I can't give you antibiotics. If I do and you get a lung problem that is bacterial, the antibiotic might not help. You are already resistant to quite a few antibiotics. I'll give you something else for the cough, but anything that would be effective right now would make you sleepy."   
  
"And which of these effective drugs is that? You always tell me why you're doing things for some reason, but I simply want to know what it is you're doing."   
  
"It's Codeine, a narcotic, and addictive if used wrong. It'll make breathing less of an effort. You might not sleep with this, but the world will seem foggy and dreamlike, so maybe not much different from sleep. If you're hungry, you should eat now, because it suppresses appetite. Also, I was taught part of being a doctor is an open bedside manner. I simply was trying to put you at ease."   
  
"Bedside Manner? Is that what you call what you do? You do not scare me, Hatori, so don't act as if I need to be patted on the head like a frightened child. To respond, I am not hungry," said Akito smiling thinly, "and I have told you before I do not dream." He sat up slowly to let Hatori get to his arm.   
  
"Then this may be a first," said Hatori, who held Akito's wrist still with one hand, and gave the injection. Akito lay down again.   
  
"Before I drift into this fog I am suddenly aware of," said Akito, "I would like to know of Honda-san's virtue."   
  
"What about it?" said Hatori.   
  
"Is it in tact? I would not like to think someone I allowed to be taken in was a common whore. And being a doctor, I expect you hold her highest confidence."   
  
"She is still a virgin, from what I've seen," Hatori said, carefully phrasing his response. "Ah. Well, I trust your ever clinical gaze, Hatori." Akito said, and laughed lowly, "I wonder if it remained clinical, and how she would look at you then............ is that part of your Bedside Manner?"   
  
"Do you need me further, Akito?" said Hatori, not reacting. Akito's mouth twitched.   
  
"One thing. I cannot continue speaking this loudly, so lean in a little." Hatori did so. "I am acutely aware of your smell, Hatori. It is familiar to me, more than a mother or a lover would be. And so," Akito put his hand on the back of Hatori's head. Delicate and gentile as a young girl's, it pulled Hatori's ear to Akito's mouth, "I also know your hands smell like her. I can smell her on my wrist, Hatori. On my chest where you touched me. At this moment does she smell of you also? It is such an intimate memento, isn't it: that certain scent a person's skin leaves behind. Thank you for leaving that with me as well, Hatori," he whispered gently.   
  
Hatori's hair ran through Akito's fingers Akito's his arm dropped back onto the bed. Hatori didn't move.   
  
"You're breathing.... very heavily Hatori, perhaps you....... need some fresh air? Go, I'm..... done with............ you for now." Akito was drifting off into the medicine. His eyes weren't focusing as sharply, and his pupils had dilated.   
  
"Thank you." said Hatori. He drew back from Akito and stood up. Hatori lingered in the doorway, staring at Akito's chest and arms before he departed. 


	7. Just a Mouse

Hatori returns, and deals with Yuki's presence. A less serious chapter, featuring the younger cast. _________   
  
Hatori walked into his room. Yuki was there, holding Tohru's hand. Momiji was at the other side of her, and Kyou was a little ways off, in a chair.   
  
"Tohru woke up for a minute." Momiji said when he saw Hatori.   
  
"Mmmmm," confirmed Yuki, "she was confused, but she reached for my hand, then calmed down and slept again." Kyou harrumphed in his chair. Hatori stared intensely at Yuki, then walked to the back door and looked at the rock garden.   
  
"Strange, I could have sworn I saw Yuki, but it's just a little gray mouse. Obviously isn't Yuki, is it, Momiji?"   
  
"No-o," said Momiji slowly, "It's just...... a mouse. Like you said."   
  
"Good. It would have been a great inconvenience for me to have to go tell Akito. After all, he told me he would like to see Yuki not ten minutes earlier, I couldn't possibly have ignored that. But mice are so common, one being in here isn't anything Akito would be concerned with. I guess Yuki isn't coming after all."   
  
There was a popping noise behind Hatori and he turned around. The 'mouse' was sitting on Tohru's chest, and a set of clothes were being quickly folded by Momiji.   
  
"Just doing some laundry!" chirped Momiji.   
  
"No need to make excuses," muttered Kyou.   
  
"Good. That mouse seems to naturally belong there, sitting on her chest. I would suggest it shouldn't move. Excuse me while I go and....... go wash up." Hatori said absently, ignoring Kyou. He walked into the adjacent bathroom. "What was that about?" said Kyou.   
  
"He has to pretend very hard he didn't see Yuki. You know how hard it is to lie to Akito. I think it gets even harder the more time you spend with him. Hatori spends the most time with him, out of almost anyone."   
  
"Yes," said Yuki, "It gets very hard, after a while........"   
  
"He'd still be lying to Akito!" said Kyou.   
  
"No," said Momiji, "he's lying to himself, which to him, might be easier than lying to Akito. And Hatori doesn't like lying to himself like some people, so it's still an effort. While we're here, you're going to have to stay sitting on her, so you don't change back, and not talk. You can't be seen again while we're here. As Yuki, I mean, because he can't pretend if he sees you twice, or hears you talk. Kyou, we can't talk to or about Yuki directly. If we have to, it has to be in a way that you could have been talking about something else."   
  
"You want subtlety from Kyou? Ahhh, I wish I wasn't the one who has to keep quiet."   
  
"You don't have to, if you'd rather just go make nice with Akito!"   
  
"Shut up, Baka-neko!"   
  
"No fighting!" yelled Momiji above Yuki and Kyou. They all froze and looked at the bathroom door. Tohru stirred.   
  
"Nnnnnnh?" she said as her eyes fluttered half open.   
  
"Tohru-chan, it's us, Momiji, Kyou and Yuki." said Momiji.   
  
"Yuki-kun.......?" she said quietly.   
  
"Yes, he's a mouse now, but he's right here," Momiji picked up Yuki and showed him to her before putting him back on her stomach.   
  
"I'm..... I'm not- I should....." she said, and tried to sit up, but was too tired to do it. She began to try and turn over to crawl.   
  
"Kyou, help us calm her down. Hold her hand" said Momiji.   
  
"W-what? Why don't you!?"   
  
"Tohru-chan doesn't know me as well, and I don't think she totally recognizes me. But you and Yuki she does."   
  
Kyou hesitated.   
  
"Come on, Cat, or do I have to change back and beat your head on straight?" said Yuki.   
  
"Fine!" He walked over, kneeled by her and grabbed her hand. Tohru stopped fidgeting and looked at him.   
  
"Kyou-kun, you're here......"   
  
"Yeah, Momiji said I was, didn't he?"   
  
"Uh huh. But you really are............" she smiled a little and her head went back on the pillow. She was asleep again.   
  
"Good," said Hatori, and Kyou and Yuki jumped. Hatori was standing in the bathroom doorway. His hands and arms were red, and the tips of his fingers and palms were rubbed raw. He had also splashed water on his face, and his hair was damp. He looked tired and sallow. "You did well, Kyou."   
  
"How long have you been there?" said Kyou.   
  
"Since you took her hand, but not before. Did I hear a commotion?"   
  
"Nah, nothing much!" said Momiji.   
  
"Good. What would you tell someone if they wanted to know what happened?"   
  
"That she got sick and fainted, and you got help taking care of her. And that nothing sick or indecent or whatever happened, cause you weren't alone with her after we showed up."   
  
Yuki narrowed his eyes at Hatori.   
  
"Yup, I was here too, and I know nothing bad happened! Hatori was a saint and we helped him out!"   
  
Yuki calmed a little.   
  
"What time is it?" said Kyou   
  
"We missed dinner, and the sun's set. About 8:30. I can go get something for us from the kitchens, and extra in case Tohru wakes up enough to be able to eat." replied Hatori.   
  
"Fine. What about sleep?"   
  
"Whatever happens, we can't move her out the back. She wouldn't be strong enough to climb up for another day at least, and we obviously can't carry her. She'll have to walk out the gate on her own steam early tomorrow morning, and then I'll drive you all back."   
  
"Walk out?" asked Momiji   
  
"Yes. Appearances, I'm afraid. If anyone does see, they'll see Tohru-kun walking out. Not her half dragged away from my residence at four in the morning to my car, then driven off. I can't drive it up to my house, so we'd haven't to get at least to the car park. Also, the number of young men carrying her may make it worse if she looks, for lack of a better word, drugged. It's better if she isn't seen at all, but her walking would be the best way if she is."   
  
"And what happens if she can't walk?" Kyou said.   
  
"She'll walk. I'll do anything to get her out while Akito's asleep and doesn't know she's still here."   
  
Momiji and Kyou looked at eachother.   
  
"You didn't tell him Ha'ri?" said Momiji.   
  
"Not specifically. Akito may have misunderstood me, but I am not sure if he did. I would, of course, clarify if I knew for certain he did misunderstand. He didn't ask to see her, which I gather he might have otherwise."   
  
"Oh."   
  
"I'll get the dinner and some drinks. If the mouse is thirsty or hungry, there's a saucer around here you can fill with water, and it can have some rice. But they don't like tea, and I'm not wasting meat on an ordinary mouse." Hatori left.   
  
"Ahhh. I guess nothing very nice for me to eat. If nothing else, the food was good here. I guess I can't complain, but he could be less strict about it."   
  
"Can you imagine him letting a regular mouse in here at all?" said Momiji.   
  
"Mmmmmm. No, not really. I guess he is going a little easy on me. So, um, what didn't happen with Tohru?"   
  
"Didn't happen? All sorts of things didn't happen!" said Momiji. Yuki froze, "What? A-all sorts of things?"   
  
"Yeah! They didn't eat octopus, or go sky diving, or sing enka folksongs, or make-"   
  
"That isn't what I meant, Momiji," said Yuki, relieved.   
  
"Momiji means that...... that Hatori got someone right away to help him carry her to the shower to cool her off. He gave her a shot and an I. V., then got her dressed. He wasn't alone with her after-" he thought a moment, "Momiji and me showed up. He made sure she was always covered, even while he dressed her, and that we could see he never once touched her funny. That it or you want to know little details?"   
  
Yuki narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth together, but said, "Okeh.............. I guess you all had to...... do what you could. Whether I like it or not doesn't matter if Honda-san needs help. And no, what you told me was quite _detailed_ enough for my taste."   
  
"You asked me!"   
  
"You did ask Yuki, and you answered Kyou. Nothing to argue about, then!" said Momiji. Yuki and Kyou considered this, then turned away form eachother, Kyou still holding Tohru's hand.   
  
"Fine."   
  
"Whatever." 


	8. Hazy Logic and Narrow Escapes

Fun to write, and the least serious of the later chapters. ________   
  
They all ate without saying much. Momiji slipped a little of his fish into Yuki's rice when Hatori wasn't looking, and Yuki was very grateful. They had some little cans of coffee Hatori brought with him, but Yuki had to content himself with water. Kyou avoided the soup, because it had onions in it, but he could stand the smell better than leeks. Hatori wrapped up some of the food no one took very carefully and put it in his refrigerator, even though he wasn't supposed to.   
  
"I can't let Tohru-kun's food spoil," he said, "I'll replace the supplies and scrub the refrigerator when this is over,"   
  
"What are we going to do about sleep?" said Kyou.   
  
"Well, I have to stay in here in case anything happens. That means you two are sleeping here as well."   
  
"With Tohru-kun? Together?"   
  
"Not on the same mattress, obviously. The mouse will have to be cautious that if she turns over, he doesn't fall off in his sleep. I have my own bedroll. Momiji, can you get your own and another if there is one?"   
  
"Yah, I've got a guest bed! I'll run and get it! I love sleepovers!" He leapt up and ran with his arms out like an airplane toward the hall and the front door.   
  
"What about getting up?"   
  
"I'll set an alarm. Momiji is hard to wake, but I do fine if I get enough sleep. I'll be on watch most of the night, but I will sleep a little. Unlike, Yuki, I know you wake up and fall asleep very quickly. If we are slow to rise, shake Momiji and I a little. I'll set the alarm to 3:45. We should go to bed as soon as Momiji returns, with that early a rising."   
  
Momiji protested some at the early bedtime, but really, everyone there was too tired to turn down sleep.   
  
"We'll sleep in all our clothes tonight, even if mine aren't good to sleep in," said Momiji after he accepted his fate.   
  
"That's a very good idea, Momiji," said Hatori. Kyou agreed.   
  
"Good. Allright, everyone go to the bathroom before lights out." Momiji and Kyou left, and then Hatori. Yuki briefly scurried outside and back. After that, Kyou, Momiji and Hatori set up their beds, but Hatori did not sit on his, but rather in his desk chair.   
  
"You gonna do paperwork in the dark, Ha'ri?" asked Momiji.   
  
"No, just keeping watch. You both sleep, and I'll go to bed after a bit. Kyou wakes up easily, so if he's here, Tohru's still not alone with me."   
  
Kyou grunted. Yuki glared at Kyou, not trusting Kyou would do more than turn over if there was a suspicious noise.   
  
"We trust you Ha'ri, and Kyou and I are here so no one can say anything else about it!" said Momiji,   
  
"Goodnight, children." Hatori said and turned off the desk light.   
  
Kyou woke up a couple times when the wind picked up. Hatori hadn't moved either time. It was too dark to see if he was keeping watch or asleep.   
  
------   
  
Kyou woke with the alarm, and Hatori had stood up. He hadn't moved from the chair all night. Momiji groaned and rubbed his head as he sat up. Yuki didn't wake, but had stayed on Tohru while he slept, and so, thankfully, was still a rodent. Hatori walked to his cabinet and prepared a needle.   
  
"What's that for, Ha'ri?" asked Momiji blearily. When Kyou had seen Momiji was awake, he dashed to the toilet.   
  
"Just in case." Hatori said. He got only a very little of a yellow drug from a bottle that was in the refrigerator, then got out an I. V. bag and pulled a some of the saline out of it.   
  
Hatori walked over to Tohru and prodded Yuki.   
  
"Mouse, wake up, you have to move. We're leaving."   
  
Yuki opened his eyes and mumbled, "Whazzit?"   
  
Hatori put his finger over his his lips and stared hard at Yuki. Yuki remembered his situation as a mouse, and tried to scurry away. Hatori caught him by the scruff.   
  
"No, the mouse will sit on Tohru's leg while I prop her up. She's calmer if he's there for some reason." Hatori said. Yuki sat on her leg obediently.   
  
Hatori patted her face.   
  
"Tohru-kun? I'm sorry but you have to get up. You've overextended yourself and are sick, but now you have to get up."   
  
"Mom.............?" she muttered. Hatori helped her sit up.   
  
"No, she's not here. You're with us, here in my clinic. We have to leave now."   
  
"Hatori............?" she said, a little louder. Everyone froze, including Kyou, who had just come back.   
  
"Yes, It's Hatori-san. I'm here."   
  
Yuki bit back the words, but Kyou said them out loud, "Since when do you know her well enough for her to call you by your first name?"   
  
Tohru said dreamily, "Oh, I'm sorry, that was rude, Hatori-san, I just..... I just............" "It's quite allright Tohru-kun, I'm not offended. You don't have to make excuses when you don't feel well. Would you like a glass of water and a very little rice? We don't have time for more, I'm afraid."   
  
"Water would be good............ I feel too..... tired to eat anything."   
  
"Go get her some water, Momiji." Momiji nodded and grabbed Hatori's mug. Hatori took the cap back off the syringe and flicked it, holding the chamber up to his right eye. Then he pushed a little of the liquid out.   
  
"What the hell's that!?" said Kyou.   
  
"Tohru-kun, this is a very dangerous drug," Hatori leaned over her and patted her hand, "I've diluted it a lot, but it's still not very safe. You will still be tired, but you won't worry as much about it. Just focus as much as you can, and listen to what Kyou, Momiji and I tell you to. If you have more trouble breathing or your chest hurts or feels funny, tell me right away. Everything will seem strange, but keep clam, and it won't be scary. You understand?"   
  
"Y-yes."   
  
"Good. Can you sit up for a little without help?"   
  
"I think so....." Tohru said, but Hatori decided not to risk it.   
  
"Kyou, help her sit up for a second." Kyou did what he was told.   
  
"Let me see your arm, Tohru-kun. No, the other one, I've already used your left, I'm sorry to say. Just breathe deeply,"   
  
Tohru held her arm out, and Hatori inserted the needle into the crook of her elbow. He pulled out a little of her blood into the chamber, and kept the needle in the vein. Kyou and Yuki choked a little, and Tohru gasped form the pain.   
  
"Sorry, I have to take a little out to make sure the drug kicks in quickly, among other things. It's like tempering an egg when you cook. You like cooking dishes like that?" he asked. He was waiting, just to be safe, before pushing the plunger in.   
  
"Y-yes. They're desserts allot.............. I've heard of a..... wonderful chocolate cake like that. If you don't heat the egg up....... before putting it in something hot, the egg.......... scrambles before it can mix in. But in some soups..... they...... . don't temper the eggs before adding them, and those can......... be delicious," she said.   
  
"I particularly like egg drop soup, myself. Especially if it's got hot peppers in it." Hatori said, and pushed in the plunger. Tohru's breath caught in her throat for a moment, and then started again, a little quicker.   
  
"Are you feeling any of what I told you about? Anything strange?"   
  
"I feel a little...... light. It isn't bad but.......... I'm not sure I like it. Everything's a little glowy."   
  
"Yes. It's an amphetamine, so you may be a little divided in how you feel. Remember you are tired, and if you want to run or something strenuous, you will run out of steam quickly. There's nothing worse than being wide awake with your muscles too tired to obey you."   
  
"Yes, that doesn't sound fun," She looked around.   
  
"Oh, is that you Yuki-kun?" she said looking at the gray mouse on her leg. The mouse shook it's head no furiously. She looked very confused at him.   
  
"He says he isn't," said Hatori, "And Yuki wouldn't lie about not being Yuki." Kyou and Yuki looked at Hatori, who was, from what they could tell being serious. Hatori stood up and threw the needle away.   
  
Tohru followed his logic muzzily, "Yes. If Yuki-kun says he isn't him, then Yuki-kun can't possibly be Yuki-kun." Hatori nodded.   
  
"Did I miss something?" Yuki said.   
  
"If you did, then I must have," said Kyou.   
  
"It sounds like Yuki-kun......" said Tohru.   
  
"I thought so too, but I am by no means fooled. Mice obviously can't talk." said Hatori.   
  
"That's right, not unless it's Yuki-kun!" Tohru said happily.   
  
"And I'm not Yuki?"   
  
"No. We just established this, Yuki. You're just a mouse." Hatori said.   
  
"Right!" said Tohru.   
  
"Can you eat a little?" asked Hatori.   
  
"I think I should. I don't know how long it's been since I have."   
  
"I'm back with Tohru's water! The tap water was all gross!"   
  
"That's just rust in the pipes, Momiji, it would have run clear if you waited. There wasn't any need to make Honda-san wait." said Yuki.   
  
"What....... is Yuki.............. can he....?" Momiji stuttered.   
  
"I'm not Yuki."   
  
"And mice can't talk." said Hatori.   
  
"But, then how could......?" Momiji said.   
  
"The stupid mouse is obviously lying if it says it can talk." said Kyou, beginning to catch on. Yuki glared at him.   
  
"Yes, Yuki-kun wouldn't lie about not being himself so Yuki-kun's just a mouse! And mice can't talk, so even if he claimed to be Yuki-kun now, I couldn't hear him." Tohru said.   
  
"When you first........ how did you know it was Yuki those other times?" asked Momiji. "I told her I was me. Honda-san trusts me not to lie."   
  
"That's right, I do, Yuki-kun! I'm glad you know that!"   
  
"As fascinating as Yuki's miraculous non-presence in this room is, we are a little behind schedule. Drink the water, and have a few bites of rice, then get dressed. Your underclothes should be dry by now."   
  
"Why would they need to dry?" Tohru asked.   
  
"Because they were wet," Hatori said.   
  
Tohru's eyes lit up in realization and she hit her palm on her forehead, "Of course! They would have had to have been wet to dry out! Silly me!"   
  
"Why's Tohru-chan so silly now, Ha'ri?" Momiji said.   
  
"She's still sick Momiji, so I gave her medicine and she isn't thinking very straight."   
  
"Nnnnnnope!" She agreed. She ate quickly and less politely than normal. Tohru had a little cold fish and the whole bowl of rice, despite Hatori's warnings on time. It was four-thirty already before she was dressed, went to the toilet, was ready to walk out the door.   
  
They all walked down the path to the gate. Yuki, still as a mouse, ran ahead so he'd be out the gate before he transformed. Hatori, Kyou and Momiji walked together, Tohru wobbling merrily along beside them. Momiji carried Yuki's clothes for when they caught up with him and he changed back. They walked past the where Hatori's car was parked, but he kept going without getting it. The round window on the main building came into view, and they all avoided looking at it, except for Tohru, who was looking around at everything she could too fast to take in anything she saw.   
  
When they were obscured from the window by a tree, Hatori turned to them and said, "If she passes out or starts having a seizure, yell for me. Don't bother being discreet, and don't leave her behind, just yell as loud as you can. I'll come running. Understand?"   
  
"Yes," said Momiji and Kyou nodded.   
  
"I get it too!" Tohru chirped cheerfully.   
  
"Yes. Good. I'll meet you out front."   
  
The rest of the way to the gate was short, and they waited just outside. Yuki was sitting nearby, still furry.   
  
"Oh there's Yuki-kun! Or are you just a mouse?"   
  
"I........." Yuki didn't know if he was in the clear with Hatori yet, or if they had to go back for some reason, ".... I'm not sure yet."   
  
"Oh. Let me know when you've decided, Okeh?   
  
"Sure."   
  
Tohru yawned a little, "Mmmmnnn. I'm getting tired again. I'm just going to lean against the wall."   
  
"Hey, you allright?" Kyou asked.   
  
"Yup. I still feel awake, just...... sleepy. You know? Not exhausted like I was."   
  
"Should we call for Hatori?" said Yuki.   
  
"No," said Kyou, "he's got the car by now, unless somethings wrong," Yuki and Momiji tensed up, "No use to worry if it has. If we call him and he is in trouble, then he'll be in worse trouble and won't come. If she's standing then we can't risk she's fine and he was delayed in getting the car, so he has to run back here."   
  
"Yah. You're right Kyou. If she falls over, we'll yell then." Momiji said.   
  
"I won't fall over. I'mmmmm super now!" she started to slide down the wall, but Momiji grabbed her arm, and helped her up again.   
  
"Sorry, Tohru-chan, we have to keep standing. Go ahead and keep leaning on the wall, okeh?"   
  
"Okaaay!"   
  
They heard a car come to the gate and Hatori call to them, "Open it for me, so I can drive through!" The non-rodent boys swung open the gates and Hatori drove out.   
  
"Get in."   
  
"What about-" began Momiji. There was a pop of gray smoke and up stood Yuki.   
  
"Hello Yuki-kun!" said Tohru. She hadn't screamed when he transformed back. She was looking straight at him unashamed, as if he were wearing clothes, "I'm so glad you're you! I've missed you, you know!" she said, smiling. Yuki turned bright red, but didn't revert.   
  
"O, How surprising to see you, Yuki, etcetera. You get in too; shotgun, so you don't have to get dressed next to Tohru-kun," Kyou had already gotten into the front seat, and climbed into the back grumbling. Tohru got in back and Momiji handed Yuki his clothes when he got in. Tohru was in the middle seat, smiling.   
  
"Buckle in, it's at least a fifteen minute drive. We're taking some back roads."   
  
"Right!" Tohru said, and put hers on. Yuki was buttoning up his shirt as they went underway, and buckled in when he was done.   
  
"That was an eventful day!" Tohru said yawning.   
  
"We haven't been up an hour!" Kyou said.   
  
"No. It's been an hour and forty minutes." said Hatori. The sun, though not up, started to make the sky glow, "We'll be at Shigure's by 6:00 at the latest."   
  
"Oh, good. I'll be able to go to sleep..... in my own......... bed.............." Tohru's head dropped, and she leaned over onto Kyou, who transformed. The seatbelt kept her from falling any farther. Kyou climbed out of his shirt as Yuki, Momiji and Hatori rolled down the windows to let the smoke out.   
  
"You should have had her take a window seat." Hatori said, speeding the car back up.   
  
"Really? So this means I have your permission to be Kyou, Hatori?"   
  
"Shut up." said Hatori and Yuki.   
  
"Sorry Kyou. Come sit with me so you don't get jerked around when we stop and stuff!" Momiji said.   
  
"No way! I'm not transforming back in your lap, Momiji, and you're sick for even suggesting it."   
  
Momiji sniffed, "I was only trying, - to be, - nice. I don't want you, - to get, - hurt." tears began to stream down Momiji's face.   
  
"Sit with him, Kyou, or else you'll fly through the windshield if we crash. My depth perception isn't what it used to be, even with my glasses." said Hatori. "Got to hell!"   
  
Hatori stopped the car and turned around. "You can sit with Momiji, or you can sit with Yuki if he'll take you, for all I care. It's either that or walk home from here. And I won't let you take any of your clothes."   
  
"Gaaaaah!" grunted Kyou and jumped on Momiji's lap. Hatori started the car again. Momiji grabbed Kyou and hugged him tightly.   
  
"Agggh, leggo of me! Just keep me from getting knocked around, don't bear hug me! And don't stroke me either, I'm not a house pet!"   
  
"Ohhhhhh, but you're so cute, Kyoooooou!"   
  
"Don't say that, you little brat!"   
  
"For God's sake, I'll take him, just to shut you two up." Yuki said. Momiji picked Kyou up and handed him forward.   
  
"You think about asking me!?"   
  
"Kyou, if you don't keep quiet while you sit here, I'll throw you through the windshield myself," said Yuki.   
  
Kyou shut up for the long ride, and Yuki wrapped his arms around Kyou's sides, so that Yuki's arms still touched his lap. When Hatori stopped to let a fox pass, Yuki brought them up to hold him back, and Kyou stayed in place. Kyou knew it was necessary, but still resented it. He dug his claws in a little deeper than he really needed for grip. 


	9. Epilogue Back Again

Wraps it up. They get home, Shigure and Hatori talk some, as do Hatori and Tohru. Shigure causes mischief. More serious than the last one, but maybe more funny......? ____   
  
As the car drove up, Shigure walked out to the front porch.   
  
"Ah!" he called, "Kyou and Yuki, how nice. And Tohru-kun! How I've missed you every little moment-"   
  
Yuki opened the door before the car was completely stopped, and Kyou, the cat form, leapt out . Halfway to the door he transformed back, and kept going up to his room. Yuki, then Momiji were next out, Yuki fleeing to his own corner of the house and Momiji bounding off to the kitchen for snacks. Last, Hatori got out slowly and opened the door to the back where Tohru was sitting.   
  
"Tohru-kun? Wake up, you're home. I'll help you up to bed."   
  
Tohru woke up a little and nodded. She skootched to the edge of the seat, and began to fall forward. Hatori extended a finger and poked her on her forehead, so she fell back onto the seat instead of onto him.   
  
"O, That was cold Ha'ri! After all she's been through these past hours, to deny her a loving embrace!"   
  
"You heard?"   
  
"Yes Aya told me."   
  
"Really. When?"   
  
"Half an hour after Yuki-kun left. He was disheveled!"   
  
"He was?"   
  
"His braid was uneven and there was dirt under his nails!"   
  
"And? You have dirt under your nails, Shigure."   
  
"But it's Aya! He looked great otherwise. He wore some sort of velvet coat thingy."   
  
"Indeed," Ayame changed before coming, then, "What did he say?"   
  
"Oh, something about how she was allergic and dehydrated, and she collapsed. He said he helped you cool her down, but I'm not sure why you needed him just to get an icepack."   
  
"Icepack?"   
  
"What, you didn't use ice? Come to think of it, he didn't say how you did it, just a very elaborate tale of how she got sick. I think he made up the part about the soul eating (yet dashing) Great Lord of Fish, but with our family, who can tell?"   
  
"Fish?"   
  
"Well, he said the 'Sea and All It's Subjects,' but that pretty much means fish."   
  
"I see. We used lots of cool water and an I. V. That's all. I needed him to help get her to a bed, too." Shigure opened his mouth to say something, but Hatori stopped him, "Momiji and Kyou helped to _carry_ her as well."   
  
"And Yuki, right?"   
  
"Mmmmmm," said Hatori noncommittally, "Tohru? Stay awake. Let me hear you say something."   
  
"Yaah...... 'm 'wake. I am......" she mumbled.   
  
"Shigure-san and I are going to help you to your bed, and I promise we'll both be perfect gentlemen. Right Shigure-san?"   
  
"Right Ha'ri-chan," Shigure said, smirking at how formally Hatori addressed him. Hatori scowled. Shigure put on a pair of slippers by the door and walked to the car.   
  
They both helped her sit up, and looped her arms through theirs.   
  
She was able to walk when she leaned on them, but they avoided letting her flop against either of their chests. Shigure kicked off his slippers, and Hatori stepped on the backs of his shoes to get them off, scuffing them. The first few stairs were difficult, but they finally figured out that they could lift her up after every stair. They had her put her weight down on each step, and finally got her up to her room.   
  
Hatori leaned her on the wall with the help of Shigure, and Hatori tuned her covers down. They took her over to her bed, and Hatori tucked her in.   
  
"You look like her dad." Shigure teased   
  
"H'mm. Do I really look that old?" Hatori murmured, "Sometimes I feel it........"   
  
"No, no, that's not what I meant! I just haven't seen you act like this before with anyone, not even Momiji." They left her room and down the stairs.   
  
"Momiji's family. I don't have to take care of her."   
  
"So you just do? She seems like a human question, doesn't she?"   
  
"Shigure, that is possibly the worst metaphor you've ever come up with."   
  
"Well, I'm not finished with it. She just walks around, and keeps running head first into danger. Each one of us is dangerous, you know. The family is dangerous, even her friends are dangerous. And yet each person she comes into contact with she........ calls to. She asks of us what we need to give to keep going. She could have been hurt or damaged or, at times, killed. But someone protects her each time. She has an extraordinary talent for being hurt just when someone is there who has the need to help her."   
  
"Shigure........... shut up. She had no choice in how this happened."   
  
"I thought nothing happened, ne?" said Shigure.   
  
"Yes. It didn't. And she didn't. Nothing did. And what's wrong is..... My pr- ...... my problem is I- I never thought I......."   
  
"Could separate the person from the patient? Is that why you had her transferred to you, so she'd be just another patient you didn't have to give a damn about?"   
  
"Not true. I care about you. And Ayame. I treat you both. You're in my care. I do my duty by all my patients."   
  
"We were your friends first, and then you were a doctor. With one constant patient."   
  
"Hurumph. Maybe. But that would mean she meant nothing more to me than any other family member now. No better than my duty."   
  
"I didn't say you succeeded. Do you ever tuck Momiji in?" Hatori started putting his shoes back on. He didn't answer.   
  
"I have to go back to the house right away. I'll be back Sunday night, to see if she can attend school."   
  
"I figured you were leaving. That is what the door's for, after all. You mean you're coming back tomorrow? It's Saturday already."   
  
"Oh. Really. I suppose it's only natural my internal clock would be off. I didn't sleep last night."  
  
"Oooooooo, how could you! You never spent that much time on me! You usually just go to sleep right after the first-"   
  
"I'm not Ayame, idiot," Shigure pretended to pout, and Hatori looked straight at him.  
  
"I'm much more attentive to detail than Aya. It tends to slow things down," He turned away and stepped off the porch.   
  
"What?? However do you know about Ayame? O, my Wounded Heart! First Aya, and now Tohru-kun!"   
  
"That's enough. I'm done playing now, Shigure," Hatori took out his keys and got into his car.   
  
"Oh, fine. Come earlier and have dinner with us. We're ordering out bentos," he sang the offer as if it were tempting.   
  
"The food at the house is better than that dreck."   
  
"Yes, but Tohru-kun will be up before then. She'll insist on making dinner, and none of us here would have the heart to turn down a delicious meal she'd slave so hard to-"   
  
"I'll be over by five. Keep her resting at least until then." Hatori said. He rolled up the window and drove off.   
  
"Ha-san? HATORI...........! I guess I'm walking Momiji home, huh...........?" -----------   
  
Shigure took Hatori up to Tohru's room Sunday afternoon. She was doing homework in her bed. "Oh, hi Hatori-san!"   
  
"Hello, Tohru-kun. Are you feeling okeh?" He took the chair from her desk and sat facing her. He put on his glasses and leaned forward, folding his hands together.  
  
"Oh yes! Thank you for all you did yesterday. I know it's one of those things people say just to be polite, but thanks to you I'm fine!"   
  
Hatori's fingers fidgeted. "How much do you remember?"   
  
"Not much, and some of what I remember doesn't make sense. I'm kind of embarrassed."   
  
"Why? If you have anything you needed me to explain to you, or need to.... confront me on, do not hesitate to say. I had to do some things I would not do if- I mean that" "Oh, you mean the shots? Yeah, I know, you need permission from me normally, but it could,'t be helped, right?"  
  
"No that's...... I- I had to carry you to the shower. And get you dressed. You were never indecent, and I made sure there would be no way anyone could question your virtue or relationship to me."   
  
"Oh." Tohru turned a little pink, "I'm not........ there's no need to apologize! You got hurt the last time, right? And I took you and covered you up? I didn't do so well then, I had to...... uh, cover you up after I got you into bed. No, wait, that sounds wrong-"   
  
"I understand,"   
  
"Right. So anyway, you just did for me what I did for you. So that means we're even, huh? So don't worry about it. Thanks for telling me, though! Kyou wouldn't even anything about what happened, except that it wasn't bad. The way he said it wasn't exactly reassuring, but I never thought for a moment you were......... I know you're a good man," Hatori blinked.   
  
"Oh, but I do have one question!"   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"Was Yuki there? That's what's so confusing. He can't give me a straight answer. For some reason, I think Yuki was there, but it wasn't him because he said........ and the rest just sounds so weird. And some of the things I thought happened, especially the way I acted! I'm too embarrassed to say what I remember outloud! I'm sure most of it can't have happened."   
  
"You didn't do anything wrong. As for, Yuki........... he is always as close as he can be to you. I can't imagine him being any other way."   
  
"Oh, good! I was afraid I was out of it and just imagined him! I think I'll leave it at that. Some of the things I think you all said were also very odd......" she frowned a little remembering.  
  
"Yes, Friday night's events were strange to say the least. I'm hoping there is no repeat of them." Hatori said, looking over his glasses at her, "If you were that sick, you couldn't have felt right. It may have been nerves that triggered it, but if you had walked home and collapsed, it may have been hours before someone found you. You have to let people know when you are in pain, and let them take care of you, or your luck may not hold up," Her face went from thoughtful to apologetic.   
  
"I'm really sorry! I hope you don't regret having give up your plans just to take care of me! I mean, you probably have other things to do!"   
  
"I have very few plans these days, and not Friday night. And I in no way regret anything I did to ensure your safety. You deserve to be helped when you need it."   
  
"Thank you! Then I don't regret it either!" She said, determined.   
  
"I- I didn't say you had to feel the same way.........."   
  
"I know! But if you have no shame or regrets, from this, then I would definitely have no reason to either!"   
  
"Yes. Absolutely no regrets," He paused to regain a little composure, and said in much the same voice, "I'm going to check your blood pressure and breathing, if you don't mind. That's all for now."   
  
He listened to her breathing, not so constricted, but still not quite normal. Her lungs were weak then, like he had thought. Her pressure was still low, but safe if she didn't strain herself.   
  
"I'm writing you a note for school. The next three days no gym, and tomorrow I will drive you to and from school. After that, speak to me if you feel faint walking or doing everyday activities."   
  
"You've done so much, I can't ask you to drive me! I'm not even sure if I can......" Tohru stopped herself.   
  
"Can what?"   
  
"Well, um, uh........ I'm not sure I can pay you right now. But give me the bill, and I'll pay it off as much as I can! You can even call my boss! You can tell him to take the money right out of my paycheck if you don't trust me!"   
  
He held up his hands in protest, "Tohru, I've never been paid more than room, board, medical supplies, and a small allowance, and I've never needed more than that. I only have a car so I can handle family emergencies, but it suffices. If I truly need something, I get it. Money is not an -."   
  
"Hatori-san, your hands! What happened? It looks like you have rope burn!"   
  
He pulled them back and folded them again, "I'm fine. They're not painful, and there's no need to worry,"   
  
"Oh, that can't be true! The sore spots haven't even been dressed! Let me have your case."   
  
"Tohru-kun, I appreciate it, but it isn't your responsibility."   
  
"I know, but I want to! And besides that, you deserve to get taken care of when you need it too! Now let me see," Hatori gingerly let her see his hands, "I don't think I can do more than clean up the fingers, since you have to use them. But I can wrap up your palms."   
  
"Yes."   
  
Tohru disinfected his fingers and palms, but seemed unsatisfied. She reached into a drawer by her bed, and brought out some hand lotion.   
  
"I have to wash my hands allot, with as much as I cook and clean. It doesn't smell girly at all, 'cause the perfume dries my skin out. You don't have to worry about that."   
  
Hatori swallowed, "That's fine."   
  
Tohru put on the lotion on his hands and then wrapped up his palms in the bandages.   
  
"Is it too tight? I know you need to use your hands for work,"   
  
Hatori flexed his hands, looking down at them, "No. I doubt I could have done better. Thank you very much," he looked back up at her, "As I was saying before, I absolutely refuse any money. I have nothing to spend it on, so I have no use for it."   
  
"Oh.......... I'm afraid I don't have anything I can give you then.......... but you're too kind, I can't just take advantage of you!"   
  
The corner of Hatori's mouth turned up, "If you insist....... you can do something for me."   
  
"Oh......?"   
  
"I am......... not so good on the phone, and I do not leave the main house much. If you could............ occasionally write I would be grateful." Hatori didn't sound nervous or scared to Tohru, just like Hatori's normal cool monotone, "You don't need to say anything about Yuki and Kyou, or anything uncomfortable, and no need to write more than once a week. I know how valuable your time is. Anything to break up my week would be appreciated. I have a postbox I use for, well for certain things, and I can write the number down for you."   
  
"Oh, I'd love that! But is it really enough? I mean if I enjoy doing it is it really payment?"   
  
"Depends on how you pay!" said Shigure, who stood in the doorway, " Sorry, Ha-san, I just want to know if you want Szechwan or Cantonese."   
  
"Knock before you come into a room with a doctor and female patient in it, Shigure. I want the hot kind." Hatori said, taking off his glasses.   
  
"Oh, the human body is nothing to be afraid of Ha'ri! Ayame makes a great living helping people to imagine themselves into this situation. I as too, frequently imagine this sort of situation, often repeatedly if it's very vivid. For story research only, of course. Anyway, I didn't know either of those types of cuisine wasn't hot, Hatori. I'll just get you something with those black peppers."   
  
"Yes, that's fine. Also, one small difference: The 'other man' listens to them from the beginning or suddenly barges in, jealous, after most is said and done. I've heard you and Aya tell stories like this, and I think I know which role you'd take. You aren't the jealous type."   
  
"I'm the voyeur huh? I didn't know you listened, Ha-san, or that you'd have enough experience to know what we were talking about!"   
  
"Shigure, you know perfectly well my level of 'experience' is the same as yours, so you can't talk. I can't speak for Aya, but I can guess."   
  
"Are you saying he would cheat?! Nay I can't believe such horrible lies! You know I care about you deeply, but he comes first. You must think me such a cad, to use you so-"   
  
"Not here or now, Shigure, or I will take you by your mangy tail and remove you from this room."   
  
"Oooooh, is that a promise?" Hatori glared and Shigure continued, "In any case, in this little story you've under played your role, it seems," Shigure sighed, "I would not have wasted any opportunity to show affection to any poor sweet girl, If I were in your position."   
  
He turned to Tohru, who looked confused, "And what about, Tohru-kun?" Shigure caught Hatori's eye and rephrased, "What do you want for dinner?"   
  
"What?! You're getting food for all of us, not just for Hatori-san? No, I have to cook! Especially for him! I'm so sorry, I thought you just didn't want to eat my food! But if I can make you all something you can't order out, not when I'm strong enough to cook!"   
  
"No, Tohru-kun, a doctor says you aren't. I would not be so rude as to turn down anything you made normally, but you are still sick. You're just going to have to relax and eat dinner with us." said Hatori firmly, "And Shigure-san will start remembering his role here. As a surrogate parent."   
  
"Yes, and as her guardian, I am fully giving my little Tohru-kun's body and heart in into your capable hands! Yes yes, I've got you, I'll stop, Ha'ri. No need for you to worry, Tohru-kun we won't be eating poorly at all tonight!"   
  
"By what definition?" said Hatori.   
  
"Well, when Ayame came by, he brought something over. It's a huge cake, and it's decorated with fresh cut strawberries and shiny chocolate frosting. It's surprisingly discreet for Aya,"   
  
"Ah. You mean the graduation cake.......?"   
  
"Ummm hmmm. I've never seen anything more realistic in frosting before or since." Shigure said.   
  
"I thank God for that," Hatori replied, "The principal had to go lie down. I think he resigned after that year, or so Ayame told me. It could just be one of his stories."   
  
"Yes, they are quite interesting!" Tohru said, finding something she could have an opinion on at last.   
  
"Yes they are. Would you come join us, Tohru-kun?" said Shigure.   
  
"I'd love to!" She stood up a little unsteadily, but sat back down again when her legs wouldn't support her fully, "Oh..... how embarrassing....." she said, panting.   
  
"Here, let me help you, Tohru-kun." Hatori said and offered her his arm.   
  
"Thank you, Hatori." she said smiling, but pale. Shigure blinked.   
  
"Hatori!?" he said, shocked, "how does Tohru-kun know you well enough.....?"   
  
"Oh!" she gasped after her brain caught up with what she just said, "I did it again! At least I think it's again, although it's fuzzy, so I can't be sure! Did I apologize then, or am I remembering wrong?! I may be sick, but it's no excuse for talking to you like I'm your- uhhhh, no, that sounds wrong! I mean for speaking so familiarly! Please forgive me doctor Souma-san!"   
  
Hatori held up his hands soothingly, "Calm down, Tohru-kun, you'll faint. 'Hatori-san' is fine. No need to treat me like some friend from your grandfather's youth. I'm by no means deserving of that much respect. We all make little mistakes, and you are under a lot of strain. Now come downstairs, and sit with this lonely, dishonorable old man."   
  
"O-okey. If you're sure...... I'm sorry............." Tohru took his arm and walked out with him. Hatori repeated that he was fine and there was no need to apologize as they walked out of Shigure's earshot.   
  
Shigure still hadn't moved, "Ha'ri.......... made a JOKE??? Not a good one, but still! He only told jokes on his own like that around Kana! Tohru-kun and he- they aren't........ familiar? Something has to be different, even more than letting her bandage his hands. How did he hurt them anyway?"   
  
Shigure paced and thought about where he could find the missing information. Something had to have been left out of what he was told. And if it was so personal Aya left it out, it was Big. Who could he harp on?   
  
Yuki would just close down if he talked about the main house most of the time, Momiji wouldn't have gotten the sort of details Shigure wanted, and Tohru was passed out.   
  
There was.... Him. He could figure it out with all the information Shigure had, but would blow up if any of the information was contrary to what Hatori told him. Despite the fact Akito always struck upon the truth, and even if he didn't explode, Akito never interpreted all of it correctly. Especially certain emotional contexts. There is a fine line between love, hate and sex. Akito could hit all three in one conversation without seeing the barrier between any of them. It tended to bias any observation Akito had on any of the three topics.   
  
It was a shame, because love hate and sex was what most things came down to anyway, in Shigure's opinion. For that reason, Shigure only went to Akito to figure people out when there was no other way. That left only....... ah!   
  
"Kyou! I need to speak to you! Ayame came over, and says he needs some part time help!!"   
  
Shigure found Kyou with Yuki in the back yard, tearing out the juniper bush and sniping at eachother. Kyou was using hedge clippers, and Yuki was moving the pieces, since he owned the gardening gloves. Shigure laid a good foundation to pick Kyou for information. He didn't make it clear what position was open at the dress shop, running the register or modeling the merchandise, and made Kyou angry about something else whenever he tried to refuse the job.   
  
Kyou ended up tearing out the juniper with his bare hands. When he tried to storm into the house, Hatori stopped him at the dining room door.   
  
"Stay out. You aren't coming in the house with your hands like that, just so you can get it all over the furniture. The shot isn't at full strength yet."   
  
"How am I supposed to get it off then?"   
  
"Use the hose."   
  
"I'm so sorry Kyou! You didn't need to go to all that trouble for me, I could have avoided the juniper!" Tohru said.   
  
"Nonsense, Tohru-kun. You are more than worth Kyou's effort, I'm sure." Hatori said. "What the hell do you mean by that?!" Kyou yelled.   
  
"That you were glad to do it. Now go clean yourself off."   
  
Kyou had to wash up outside with a sliver of old soap, and then Hatori made him throw away his shirt so the sap wouldn't get in the wash. Kyou was as irritable as Shigure could hope for. Unfortunately for Shigure's plan, it became clear over the next day Aya wouldn't play along and Kyou wouldn't budge. Shigure sadly, in the face of such opposition, had to let it go.   
  
--------- ---------   
  
Tha's it, 'M done. If you had the patience to read it thank you. I didn't realize it was soooo long. Comments are very much appreciated, as are reviews! 


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